Meteora, Greece: Ultimate Guide To Visiting The Monasteries

Several groups of hermit monks began occupying the caves around the mountains towards the end of the 1st millennium CE, many of which occupied crevices and fissures as high as 550 metres above the plain. 

This provided the sense of solitude and isolation the monks sought, and at first, they only met on Sundays and special days for group worship at a chapel at Doupiani Rock. Though not a traditional monastery with a physical complex, the group is considered the first monastery of the region, known as the Doupiani Monastery.

Eventually, the monks constructed the Chapel of the Holy Virgin, which is believed to have been constructed in the 12th century.

Meanwhile, the first full monastery complex to occupy one of the mountainous peaks is believed to have been built in the 14th century by Athanasios Koinovitis, a monk from Mount Athos. Set upon the summit of Plathy Lithos, Koinovitis built the first establishment of what would become the Great Meteoron Monastery.

While the monks were safe within the walls of their mountain-bound monastery, the planes below fell into political turmoil as Thessaly was being wrestled from the hands of the Byzantine Empire by Turkish raiders.

To escape persecution by the Turks, several hermit monks began climbing higher into the inaccessible rock pillars, and by the end of the 14th century, more than 20 monasteries occupied the mountaintops.

Of these 20, only six remain today and welcome visitors to explore the traditional customs and unique natural scenery of these truly remarkable monasteries.